


'Til The Fever Broke

by ActualMango



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Adorable, Angst, Angst and Feels, Angst and Romance, Angst with a Happy Ending, Cute, F/F, Femslash, Fluff, Gay, Hurt/Comfort, Lesbian, One Shot, Oneshot, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, wlw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-05
Updated: 2020-03-05
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:48:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,096
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23026549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ActualMango/pseuds/ActualMango
Summary: When Aela has been gone for the whole night, Frea has to find her. But Aela is in a worse state than she could have guessed.
Relationships: Aela the Huntress/Frea
Comments: 1
Kudos: 12





	'Til The Fever Broke

Frea was gathering apples when she heard the howl. 

Normally she wouldn’t fear, but she had heard the wolves on Frostmoon Crag, and she had heard the ravenous roars of werebears, and she had heard Aela. Each of them was different. 

It had been a peaceful day, and though others might have found it dull, the Skaal that remained free of Herma-Mora’s curse had welcomed the quiet. Storn had been as a rock from dawn till dusk and later still, moving only to accept a morsel of horker meat and some water. Frea and Aela had tried to hunt, trying to lose herself in the tracking and the chase, but had given up. Almost all of the game had fled, rightfully fearing the power at the center of the island. 

Aela, bored of having nothing to hunt and waiting for the Dragonborn to return from Tel Mithryn, had left after a midday meal. She said she was going to check the area around the village for threats, but Frea knew well that she would turn into a wolf. It made her uneasy – Herma-Mora and Hircine were of the same stock – but it would be pointless trying to stop her. And seeing or hearing such a beast would at least deter some of those who wished the Skaal harm. 

But it had been far too long – the moon was high in the sky, casting brilliant light on Frea’s armor – and Aela only howled like that when she was angry. Or terrified. 

Frea plucked the last apple she could reach from the tree, looking around her nervously. Was Aela being taken by hunters? By cultists? But no, it couldn't be. She was far too strong for that. Frea had only seen Aela as a beast once, but that once would stay in her memory. She had sworn, and she didn't do that often. 

She almost ran back to the village, erie and deathly quiet, a skeleton of its usual self. The great hall loomed overhead, dwarfing her as she set the apples down on a table for the next day. 

Frea didn't know what to do. 

She couldn't leave Aela - oh, her dearest love - on her own, drowning in the snow. But was running off like a jilted lover any better? The Skaal were not afraid of death, but her father needed her. The village needed her. 

She worried at her lip, a bad habit that had apparently been her mother's. Then something struck her. What if this was Miraak? Or Herma-Mora? Aela was dear to Frea, yes, but she was also dear to the Dragonborn. And the Dragonborn wouldn't hesitate to go in search of her if she went missing. It would be a perfect way to capture her. 

Frea couldn't risk that being the case. If anyone were to help Aela, it would have to be her Frea. 

_You aren’t doing this for the sake of the Dragonborn, are you? _A thought came unbidden into her mind. Of course she was. It would leave both the Skaal and the Dragonborn vulnerable.__

__

__And Aela could die - no, that wasn’t the issue. She could be weakened. She was a strong warrior, and the Skaal village needed all the protectors it could get._ _

__

__That was certainly why she was heading out, alone, a daring warrior saving the woman who happened to be the one she loved._ _

__\--_ _

__The northern woods of Solstheim were achingly silent, holding their breath. Within it, something rampaged, hunting for anything to chase and to tear apart and to kill. Aela wasn’t normally this violent as a beast, but it had been too long – the Skaal that remained in the village were far too curious about the newcomer accompanying the Dragonborn, and she hadn’t been able to find a quiet day to hunt on since they had left Skyrim, almost a month ago._ _

__

__She had started during the day, but now it was dark, dark enough to hide a sleek, russet werewolf in the shadow of the trees. She moved quietly enough to not even crunch the leaves underfoot (here, where the trees were so thick that snow never touched the ground). She had always been less noisy and more agile than the twins and Skjor, she thought with pride. Of course, that didn’t matter now. They had turned their backs on Hircine._ _

__

__The wolf that was Aela stopped in her tracks, sniffing the air, then a nearby tree. Her nocturnal eye caught something – freshly wounded bark, stretching up higher than her head. Claw marks, ravage by something colossal on the rampage._ _

__

__Aela looked around, trained her ears, but saw and heard nothing. She sighed, or would have if she was human, before she looked down. Track marks. Gigantic track marks, leading to the north, the shape of a bear’s feet._ _

__

__Even in wolf form, Aela grinned, lips curling back to reveal white teeth as long as a man’s thumb. This would be a treat. It would be a good story to sing – the vicious werewolf grappling with the determined bear, but one of them slowly but surely taking victory. She wasn’t surprised that a great, lumbering bear was stupid enough to stay in Miraak’s domain._ _

__

__Then again, she was still here too, wasn’t she?_ _

__\--_ _

__Frea had been out here for half the night, and she had found nothing to help her. She’d heard a faint wolf’s cry, but a riekling scout had turned up. By the time she’d disposed of it – an easy task – she’d lost the scream’s direction._ _

__

__She slumped against a tree, putting a hand to her temples as she tried to think of anything she’d missed. Aela could be in danger. She couldn’t mess this up._ _

__

__Were there any tracks? No, the last set she had seen were a human’s just leaving the Skaal Village, going west, but quickly lost in a river. She couldn’t smell any scat, had no intuition except the looming feeling of dread, thickening as one went closer to the temple of Miraak. Surely, if Aela was trapped there, she would have to face the temple again. And those skeletons. Frea was not a squeamish woman, but she had been haunted by thoughts of Miraak somehow reviving ancient dragons, of bones staggering up, lifted like a puppet by string._ _

__

__She was close to turning back and waiting for the Dragonborn, but then she heard another sound._ _

__

__The first cry had been in fury, in the heat of battle. This one was a long, solitary groan. Frea shivered at the anguish._ _

__

__It had been just north of northwest, so she set out at a jog, splashing with impunity through the river. Now there were tracks, human at first, but too big for Aela, and – changing? What were the long feet of a person had become – well, Frea knew the stories of bear-men to the northwest, but she had never believed, never wanted to believe they were true._ _

__

__Dread had a tight hold on her heart now, and even if Miraak and his master had nothing to do with this – which she still doubted – she knew Aela would have a hard time defeating such a beast on her own, whether she was human or wolf. Frea could only hope that the moan she had heard was from the one she loved, and not her killer._ _

__

__She kept following the signs, playing back in her mind how the bear had paused, perhaps sniffing the air, then bounding ahead, ripping through a sapling in its path. Here, the line of tracks became a flurry, a mass of stomped snow impossible to read, but there was a foul, metallic scent hanging in the air like fog, scattered and spattered almost everywhere Frea looked-_ _

__

__Blood. Far too much blood. And in the center of the fray, two distinct messes. A man, halfway between person and bear, and Aela._ _

__\--_ _

__Where was she? What was happening? Aela dimly remembered a fight, leaping on a stampeding bear’s back, the bear falling back, both of them crashing down, wildly swinging out her claws, ripping through flesh, then nothing more._ _

__

__She tried to move her head, to look at herself flung like a pathetic ragdoll on the snow. She could, but only just. She caught a glimpse of herself, of drying blood against pale, nude skin against snow the colour of the moon in its light, before her head dropped down of its own accord._ _

__

__Aela groaned, trying to not feel the pain. She should have been freezing, even being a Nord, but she was burning, aflame from the inside out. And all she could do was look up, at Masser and Secunda, peering down at her, at a werewolf who could barely best a bear._ _

__

__She was asleep – or passed out, or dead – when she felt warmth, somehow hotter than her, cradling her head, then biting cold everywhere else, metal pushing slightly against her skin._ _

__

__“Aela, Aela, my dear darling, what did you do?”_ _

__

__She tried to smile, tried to give something to the voice she knew, but only whimpered as something was slathered on a gash on her stomach, cold and stinging. Once that was done, the warm hands lifted her up and her head lolled back. She didn’t have the energy to keep it up. She was a newborn babe._ _

__

__A warm, furry cloak was wrapped around her shoulders, enfolding her. “ _Dii Rekahmul _, I need you walk. Come on, you need to walk, darling, please-” The hands manhandled Aela – no, they gently positioned her so she was almost standing, with the help of strong arms around her waist and around her shoulder. “Yes, that’s it, come on,” Frea said as they began to hobble in a direction Aela wasn’t worried about.___ _

___ _

___Within a few steps, Aela was already regretting herself be lifted from her resting place – hadn’t it been very cosy? She stumbled in another ten steps, fell to her knees within twenty. Besides her, Frea sighed, without bitterness, and turned to take Aela in her arms, carrying her like a bride. This was far more relaxing._ _ _

___ _

___“You’re going to have to be very strong,” Frea said, her voice shaky. “It’s a long walk back to the village in the snow. I know you can do it, _Rekahmul _. You have to.”___ _ _

___ _

___Aela didn’t even have the energy to nod. She just let herself be carried, swaying, the night air keeping her awake even as her body drifted off._ _ _

___\--_ _ _

___After a long, excruciating tramp back to the Skaal village, Frea had found an anxious Dragonborn and her new companion, a mercenary – Telmyr Sero, was that it? – wondering where on Solstheim Aela and her were. The mercenary had had a few healing potions, which Aela was sleeping off. As she had been for the last day and a half._ _ _

___ _

___When not gathering enough food to keep the few in the village sustained, checking on her father, or keeping watch, Frea held vigil by Aela’s bed, earnestly watching for any sign of her either waking up or slipping away. Her wounds had been severe, and it had been all Frea could do to not start crying (even as she berated herself) when they unwrapped the bearskin cloak and revealed the slashes gouged into her skin, and deeper. Whether or not she would live, let alone fight again, was a terrible question hanging in the air._ _ _

___ _

___Still, Frea thought, the critical moment was past. From where she leant against the wall, arms crossed, she could see her love’s steady breathing, her skin a golden hue in the sunlight filtering into the great hall. She looked peaceful. She’d even swallowed a little water earlier. It was an unconscious reaction, but a reaction all the same._ _ _

___ _

___Frea uncrossed her arms and walked, silently, to where Aela lay, perching herself on the edge of the bed. She took her hand in hers. It was delicate, more so than one would think from looking at her. Or at the wolf-woman within._ _ _

___ _

___Besides her, Aela sighed, her usual, harrumphing sigh._ _ _

___ _

___Frea leaned in. “Aela? Are you awake?” Her breath sped up, almost of its own volition, and even more so when she caught a fluttering of eyelids. “Oh, yes, Aela, please come back.”_ _ _

___ _

___She had expected a touching moment, if it ever came. She had not expected Aela to burst out with laughter, almost smacking her head into Frea’s._ _ _

___ _

___“By the gods, I really fooled you, didn’t I?” Aela said, still laughing too hard to get the words out in one go. It must have been, what, half an hour?”_ _ _

___ _

___Frea’s forehead creased. “But what were you waiting for?”_ _ _

___ _

___“I wanted to see how long I could make you think I was asleep. I woke up – last night? I can’t remember.” She started struggling to sit up. Frea hoisted her up by her armpits, forgetting to be careful. She was beautiful, strong Aela, and she seemed back to normal – she surely couldn’t be that fragile by now. “I’m honestly happy with how long I stayed still. What gave it away?”_ _ _

___ _

___“You sighed. And your eyelids. I saw them move,” Frea said. “But now you’re awake, I think I need to say hello.”_ _ _

___ _

___“Hey! Geroff!” Aela cried, but Frea was relentless in smattering her face with kisses, peppering her forehead, her cheeks, her mouth. She finally let herself be battered away with a hand. “I don’t understand why you do that. Seems like something I should do to you. Being a wolf, and all.”_ _ _

___ _

___Frea grinned, her smile splitting her face in half. “That is my thing to do to you, and you know it. You will not take it away from me. I forbid it.”_ _ _

___ _

___“Ok, Frea the Serious.” Aela was about to say something else, but then her nostrils flared. She had smelled something. “Is that horker stew? I knew I could smell food.”_ _ _

___ _

___Frea remembered the mercenary had agreed to cook something while the Dragonborn explored the coast. “I’m not sure how much you should be…” she started to say, but Aela gave her the signature puppy dog face, somehow looking more like a wolf – a very cute one – than when she was actually in beast form._ _ _

___ _

___Frea could never resist the puppy dog look._ _ _

___ _

___“Ok, I’ll give you a bowl as well,” she relented. “Wait here.”_ _ _

___ _

___“Do I have any other option?” Aela called after her._ _ _

___ _

___“If you try to get out of your bed, I will throw you back into it.”_ _ _

___\--_ _ _

___A few minutes later, they were both tucked up under the furs, backs against the wall, bodies pressed against each other in the small bed. Frea had taken her armor off – it seemed she wouldn’t be doing anything useful for the rest of the day. She was alright with that._ _ _

___ _

___Teldryn (Frea had had to bashfully ask his name again, but he hadn’t minded) had gladly given Frea some of the horker and apple stew, as well as a fresh health potion. Frea had tried to repay him with a potion of her own, but he had waved it off. She supposed the Dragonborn would give him extra if he wanted it. As a mercenary, he probably would. She tried not to feel guilty. The Dragonborn had plenty of her own funds._ _ _

___ _

___“Ugh,” Aela said as she lifted her arm to eat. “This bastard is going to take its sweet time healing up. I can tell.”_ _ _

___ _

___“You will, tragically, have to be patient,” Frea said, almost done with her own bowl. “You waited half an hour to surprise me, you can wait to be able to go about life normally.”_ _ _

___ _

___“That was half an hour, not months,” Aela said, wincing as she tried bending down, and quickly stopping._ _ _

___ _

___They sat in silence. Frea took Aela’s bowl for her, and there was no complaining. She knew there would have been if Aela wasn’t so hungry._ _ _

___ _

___“Can I ask you something?” Aela asked, before spooning the last chunk of meat into her mouth._ _ _

___ _

___Frea nodded._ _ _

___ _

___“What is it that you call me? Whenever you think I’m not listening. You call me ‘dee raikamol’, or something.”_ _ _

___ _

___Frea froze, but she realized she didn’t have to be afraid of saying it. And she was too honourable and loved Aela too much to lie._ _ _

___ _

___“Well?”_ _ _

___ _

___Slowly, she began to thaw again, doing her best to relax her forehead. “Storn teaches me _Dovahzul _– the dragon tongue – as preparation for being shaman. It’s an important part of ritual. We may not worship the dragons anymore, and we didn’t know truly whether they existed until – recently,” Frea said, thinking about Miraak, and the Dragonborn she knew. “But we still respect them, and they are a part of this land and human history just as much as Herma-Mora.___ _ _

___ _

___“ _Dii Rekahmul _is a phrase of my own making, in _Dovahzul _– _dii _means _my _, and _rekahmul _is – well. _Rek _means _she _, and _ahmul _means husband.”_________________ _ _

___ _

___She took a deep breath, feeling Aela’s gaze heavy upon her. “There is no word for _wife _that we know of, so-”___ _ _

___ _

___She was cut off by Aela’s lips on hers, silencing her. Frea leaned forwards, threading her fingers through Aela’s hair, tangled from lying in bed for so long._ _ _

___ _

___Aela chuckled. “Are you brushing my hair? Now?” she asked._ _ _

___ _

___“Of course not,” Frea mumbled into her _Rekahmul _’s lips, even as she worked away at a knot. “Why would I do that when I’m asking you to marry me?”___ _ _

___ _

___It had only just occurred to her, that this was what she wanted. She couldn’t remember her parents’ relationship, but as she kissed Aela, alone, together, so in love – she didn’t think she could ever have wanted anything else. She wanted to marry her. For their souls to be together._ _ _

___ _

___“You- you want-” Aela pulled away, making Frea almost yank her red hair off. Her eyes were wide._ _ _

___ _

___Frea said nothing, only nodded, tears coming to her eyes. If Aela didn’t want to-_ _ _

___ _

___“Yes, Frea, yes. Yes!” Aela almost shouted before Frea shushed her, gesturing downstairs, where the mercenary Teldryn would be. She kissed Frea’s finger on her lips, reverently, like one would kiss a newborn babe._ _ _

___ _

___Frea put her hands on Aela’s shoulders, then her waist as she kissed Aela’s neck, who winced. “Careful! That’s where it hurts.”_ _ _

___ _

___“Ah, sorry. Is here better?” Frea asked, cradling her head._ _ _

___ _

___They kissed for a while, Frea dancing around Aela’s wounds. Eventually Aela grew tired again, so they just lay in bed, watching motes of dust lazily drift through the sunlight._ _ _

___ _

___“Darling? Future _Rekahmul _?”___ _ _

___ _

___“Yes, Aela?”_ _ _

___ _

___“Tell me how the Skaal get married. I want to make plans.”_ _ _

**Author's Note:**

> Even if it's a rarepair, I love Aela/Frea. Or, dare I say it... 
> 
> Fraela  
> 
> 
> Don't forget to toss a kudos or a comment to your writer if you liked the fic! You have no idea how much it means to me, and it motivates me to keep writing. Also, thanks to everyone who did that on any of the drabbles!


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